by Aaron

What happened to the good old days of shopping?

There once was a day when I’d go to a big box store shopping for electronics, cameras, whatever, and look at the boxes, and any posted information, and make a decision without consulting any other sources. Occasionally, I’d talk to a friend or coworker, but more often than not, I shopped alone. There was no “Internet Oracle” that I could consult for thousands of reviews by other people that I don’t know. I wouldn’t spend months looking for a product, trying to decide, as there really wasn’t much information besides what was on the box and what a “capable” salesperson might be able to offer.

Now, I’m forced to look through hundreds of billions of web pages, reading and rereading reviews, going over every tiny detail and immediately moving on if someone has a bad review – even if there are 20 good reviews. Reviewer “Buttinski” said it was the worst 2 speed blender and toaster combination!

Am I happier now, with all of this information? Probably not, unless it’s to just justify my educated purchase with a team of trusted internet co-shoppers.

(Can you tell that I’m shopping for something? Specifically a compact digital camera that fits in my front blue-jean pants pocket comfortably. I had a Canon SD870 which I liked, but the LCD recently developed serious issues – and I’m looking to see what else is around.)

by Aaron

Possible Solution to Slingbox Error 0x9236000d on Windows

imageI recently upgraded my old Linksys router to the custom firmware, Tomato (definitely recommend!). (I had been running DD-WRT, which is powerful, but has a much more complex user interface). After upgrading the router, I was unable to connect to my Slingbox. (As an aside, I’m not 100% confident that there’s a cause/effect there – but it’s one key thing that changed recently).

The error was:

Error: 0x9236000d
Context: 20
Operation: 110

The online help suggested that something might be wrong and I should fix it before continuing. Duh.

After experimenting with some firewall settings, IP address changes, and a few more pointless attempts, I found that the only thing that fixed the connectivity issues was to completely reset my Slingbox and run through the setup again. The Sling Player software immediately recognized the “unconfigured” Sllngbox as soon as the reset finished. I reapplied all of the settings (including resetting the passwords back to their old values), and I’m again able to connect and use the Slingbox with no issues.

I hope this helps someone else as there really wasn’t much information about this error anywhere on the Internet.